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I use an RF modulator to send the output from my HR-22 in my living room to the upstairs rooms in my house where we occasionally watch TV. I'm using a Philips PH61159 modulator. Now, I know this is RF Modulation and I'm watching analog SD content on a 24-inch HDTV but the quality seems especially bad - even for SD.

So are there better consumer-grade RF Modulators on the market or do they all pretty much do the same job?

Also, if the modulator is agile, try using other channels to avoid any interferrence from a local station or from leaks in the cable company wiring in your area.
Try feeding the output of the modulator to the TV next to it and see if the video is good at the source.
If there are any commercial guys in your area, they usually have old commercial modulators in the junkpile that may still work for you. The commercial modulators have more power as well.

What's almost always marginal is viewing an SD signal on an HDTV. Set your receiver to output SD on your HD connected TV and you'll likely see a decided degradation in picture quality. It can only go downhill from there.

Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. -- JFK

The ChannelPlus units have always worked for me over the years. I have the 5515 modulators on the DVD-R/VCR (connected to the HR20) and security cameras. This enables me to watch TV in the backyard and the garage, from what is on in the living room. This in conjunction with a 550-HHR, modulates all of my basic cable (OTA only) and modulators on to the same signal. I have to flip to the TV's internal NTSC tuner in order to see these channels, but I still have access.

A 4-way splitter provides, as might be expected, about 1/4 of the original signal to each output port.
A 2-way splitter cuts the signal in half, and another splt of the half results in 1/4.
In terms of db, a loss of 3db is about half of the original signal. Most 2-way splitters are rated at 3.5db loss, and 4-way splitters are rated at 7.5 db. After taking into consideration the small losses from the fittings the overall loss would be close to 4 and 8db repectively.

This is exceedingly unlikely to happen. The ones that are available seem to be taking advantage of the "analog hole" and those that don't will necessarily have to adhere to HDCP to include an HDMI input (functional HDCP support, even if it is simply cutting off all protected content, is a requirement for licensing HDMI).

Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. -- JFK